Beelight
(work-in-progress), 2019 (live 16mm projection/performance)
Apitherapy, or the use of honey bee products as medicine, can be traced back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and China. The use of honey dates back 4,000 years, it is documented in cave paintings, ancient Egyptian pottery and in numerous religious texts including the Vedas and the Bible. The Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the “father of medicine,” used bee venom to treat joint pain and arthritis. Several years ago I began experiencing chronic health issues that led me down a winding road of healing modalities from allopathic to holistic to straight up fringe. When these healing modalities failed, I began experimenting with live bee venom therapy (BVT) which, to my surprise, was instrumental in restoring my health.
Beelight is a 16mm collage film featuring the individual wings and stingers of BVT bees that have healed me. The bees used in my therapy were at the end of their natural 6-week life cycle. Paying homage to Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight, each wing and stinger is applied to film directly by hand, frame-by-frame. The film is part of a larger multimedia body of work that explores both the history of apitherapy and the current phenomenon of bee colony collapse disorder. The project will culminate with a gratitude ceremony in the form of a live performance combining multiple film and video projections, original sound and a tasting/gifting of honey that I harvest myself.
Apitherapy, or the use of honey bee products as medicine, can be traced back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and China. The use of honey dates back 4,000 years, it is documented in cave paintings, ancient Egyptian pottery and in numerous religious texts including the Vedas and the Bible. The Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the “father of medicine,” used bee venom to treat joint pain and arthritis. Several years ago I began experiencing chronic health issues that led me down a winding road of healing modalities from allopathic to holistic to straight up fringe. When these healing modalities failed, I began experimenting with live bee venom therapy (BVT) which, to my surprise, was instrumental in restoring my health.
Beelight is a 16mm collage film featuring the individual wings and stingers of BVT bees that have healed me. The bees used in my therapy were at the end of their natural 6-week life cycle. Paying homage to Stan Brakhage’s Mothlight, each wing and stinger is applied to film directly by hand, frame-by-frame. The film is part of a larger multimedia body of work that explores both the history of apitherapy and the current phenomenon of bee colony collapse disorder. The project will culminate with a gratitude ceremony in the form of a live performance combining multiple film and video projections, original sound and a tasting/gifting of honey that I harvest myself.